Popularized in Brazil for the manufacture of roof tiles, Eternit () is looking for a safer path. With a gross revenue of R$1.15 billion in 2025, industrialized buildings, a growing segment as an alternative to traditional masonry, are gaining importance in the company’s results.
For the year, the company’s net profit was R$49 million, a growth of 26.2% compared to 2024. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), an important indicator of operating results, rose 20.6%, to R$112 million.
“The profit was very positive. It is a year of transformation where we actually confirmed the strategy for the future”, says Eternit’s CFO, Carisa Portela. In one business arm, fiber cement products, the company is consolidated in the production of tiles, with around 30% of market share.
Industrialized construction is also in this line, a growth bet for the coming years. This involves the development of customized cement slabs for residential and corporate developments, inputs used in .
In 2025, net revenue from this business arm increased by 27.4%, to R$51.8 million. “This improves our product mix and our margin in the fiber cement business”, points out Portela.
Growth of the industrialized construction market
Since the pandemic, explains the company’s CEO, Rodrigo Inácio, this type of construction has gained traction in Brazil. Initially, the need to urgently build structures such as hospitals created a demand for the industrial model in which plates are assembled almost like Lego pieces to reach the final structure of the buildings.
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“It also had another effect: labor. There was a lot of difficulty in hiring and when construction is brought into the industry, a controlled environment, with mass production, the need for labor on site decreases”, says Inácio.
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Precisely because it is growing, the industrialized construction market is less sensitive to the tile vertical cycle, normally driven by periods of lower housing credit. Furthermore, concrete slabs have greater added value, which adds margin gains to the company.
In the fiber cement segment, the gross margin was 12.3% in 2025, slightly more than the 11.9% in 2024. The company attributes the result to the increased participation of the industrialized construction segment in the mix. When looking at the total gross margin, however, there was a drop.
From 2024, when the number was 19.8%, to 2025, when it reached 17.4%, the reduction was 3 percentage points. The result was pressured by the company’s second business arm, the extraction of chrysotile mineral, which recorded a drop in margin of 8 percentage points.
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Chrysotile mining
Entirely dedicated to export, the ore exists in two forms: long fiber, with higher added value, and short fiber, with lower value. Last year, the mineral veins found by the company were of the second type, leading to a tighter result. There is also an impact from exchange rate variation. With the devaluation of the dollar against the real, the company earned less in conversion.
Now, Eternit is looking at cash flow, something new considering the company’s history. As an exporter, the company is able to raise funds via advance exchange contracts, instruments called ACC and ACE, with incentive rates of 7% and 8.5%.
With the average cost of debt at 11.38%, the company is able to invest resources, for example, in CDBs (which pay amounts close to the basic interest rate, currently 14.75%) and earn from the difference between funding and investment. “The market is unstable and not just for us. With fiscal issues being discussed all the time, tax reform, wars around the world, tariff barriers. We must always be prepared for any eventuality”, says Portela.
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Eternit left in 2024, during the 2000s. The material, previously used to manufacture roof tiles, was banned in Brazil due to its proven health risks. The chrysotile mine maintained by Eternit, responsible for around 30% of the company’s revenue, is one of the legacies of this period as it is the raw material for the production of tiles and, therefore, today only exists for export purposes.
Change of headquarters
As one of the changes in its new phase, Eternit is moving its office from Faria Lima to Hortolândia, where one of its manufacturing plants is located. The movement is a signal to the market: the company is looking for operational efficiency and proximity to the core business. The process should end in 2026.
“We are taking the administrative headquarters there with a very strong objective of bringing administrative and operational aspects closer to the factory. Creating this synergy, seeking economies of scale”, says Inácio.
